A NIGHT OF TERROR

Sultan of Pahang was, at that time, collecting the
force with which he afterwards successfully in-
vaded and conquered the State. They told of all
they had seen and heard, multiplying their figures
with the daring recklessness that is born of un-
fettered imaginations, and the lack of a rudimen-
tary knowledge of arithmetic. But even this
absorbing topic could not hold the attention of
the hearers for long. Before Potek and Kassim
had well finished the enumeration of the heavy
artillery, of the thousands of elephants, and the
tens of thousands of the followers, with which they
credited the adventurous, but slender bands of
ragamuffins, who followed Ahmad's fortunes,
Che' Seman broke into their talk with words on
a subject which, at that time, was ever uppermost
in the minds of the Tembeling people, and the
conversation straightway drifted into the channel
in which it had run, with only casual interruptions,
for many weeks past.

" He of the Hairy Face1 is with us once more/'
ejaculated Che' Seman ; and when this announce-
ment had caused a dead silence to fall upon his
hearers, and had even stilled the chatter of the
women-folk near the fireplace, he continued :

" At the hour when the cicada is heard (sunset),
I met ImSin Sidik of Gemuroh, and bade him stay
to eat rice, but he would not, saying that He of the
Hairy Face had made his kill at Labu yester-
night, and it behoved all men to be within their
houses before the darkness fell. And so saying he

1 S* Pudong—one of the names used by jungle-bred Malays to
describe a tiger. They avoid using the beast's real name lest the
sound of it should reach his ears, and cause him to come to the
speaker.

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